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Lack of Empathy

Sociopaths have a profound lack of empathy for the feelings of others.
They lack the internal feedback system by which normal people monitor themselves. (Most people call this “conscience,” which is probably as useful a term as any.) Sociopaths do not have this and don’t feel bad about abusing other people. It’s not that they feel bad and ignore it—they don’t feel it at all.

Sociopaths understand that they are different from normal people and learn to mimic normal behavior. This mimicry has a purpose: It gets the sociopath what he or she wants.

The sociopath hides his or her difference. After letting it show a time or two—and probably being punished by a parent as a result—the sociopath covers up the truth and keeps it covered. But the reason for hiding it is not embarrassment (the sociopath doesn’t feel embarrassment), but because it hinders him from getting what he want.

Since sociopaths have no empathy for others, making use of normal people feels just fine to them. Likewise, they feel no remorse.

Empathy, as viewed by the sociopath, is a weakness, and he considers himself superior because he isn’t burdened by it.

Because they lack an internal feedback system, sociopaths are excellent liars. For example, they can often pass lie detector tests, since those tests register the effects of our internal feedback system, which they don’t have.

A sociopath is likely to maintain a group of people who believe wholeheartedly that he is a good, kind, honest person. He’ll work in calculated ways to create and maintain that opinion in them.

Interesting post, Psychopath Resistance. I am curious…Do you feel empathy towards sociopaths? Can you put yourself in their shoes? Just like “them”, aren’t you also trying to get what you want? – Aaron

As an empathic person, the callous cruelty that I have endured and seen others suffer has many times seemed senseless and left me not only hurt, but also confused. My devotion to studying psychopathy is largely motivated by a need to understand; to get inside the abuser’s head to see the world from the abuser’s perspective.

If empathy is intuitively feeling what another person feels, then the answer to your question is no, I cannot feel what a sociopath feels because his mental structure is totally different from mine. What I can do, thanks to research and personal experiences, is understand, more or less, how his mind works and why he behaves the way he does.

It can be said that everyone tries to get what they want, but that does not mean we are all equally selfish, greedy, egocentric, or indifferent to the feelings and rights of others. Sociopaths differ from “normals” in what they want and in how they go about getting it—without conscience. It is these differences that define psychopathy.